Our Chemical Romance
by MayonakaNoHeiko
Summary: AU. SesshoumaruKagome.Follow one Higurashi's misadventures through University life as she makes friends and possibly finds love.
1. Chapter 1

She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel with the beat of the music, her face a mask of practiced aloofness. She whispered the words and her eyelids drooped slightly as her favorite part came on…she really did love guitar solos. She disinterestedly glanced at her watch and raised her eyebrows in an expression of slight puzzlement. Hmm…it appeared she was going to be late to what she had so amorously dubbed "The Last Supper". Her mum would be upset and her sister livid with indignation. Yippee.

The long line of cars advanced ever so slightly and she briefly wondered why she hadn't taken her bike that morning instead of the car. And then she remembered that this was supposed to be a privilege since her family owned only one car. Yeah, right! Sweat dripped into her eyes and she wiped angrily at it with the back of her hand. She bit her lip and calculated how long it would take to get home if she just ran over all these cars. She would still be late for dinner anyways. There was no changing that fact. She was contemplating really just running over the cars just for the heck of it. It would be better to arrive late and not have the police after her as opposed to still being late and with the definite need to take anger management…yet again. There was also the small possibility that she would get charged with multiple murders and go to prison. But that was beside the point.

She sighed and snuggled deeper into the ratty seat of the hand-me-down Acura that her family was a proud owner of. This was going to be a _long_ evening.

Kagome parked the car in front of the shrine steps and bit the inside of her cheek. She was sure she had forgotten something…she just didn't know what. She opened the door and carefully stepped out, grabbing her violin case on the way, still pondering her predicament. She licked her lips and mentally cursed her bad memory; Souta said she had premature Alzheimer. She always hit him when he said that but know she was beginning to think that, as much as annoying twerp her little brother was, perhaps he was right.

"Higurashi!"

Crap! No, not Houjou! Not now! She turned her head in the opposite direction of his voice, hoping he would get her drift and just leave her be. Kagome wasn't really_ that_ lucky.

"So…Higurashi, how's it going?"

She looked at him with what she hoped was a genuine look of surprise.

"Oh, Houjou-kun, I didn't hear you coming!"

A blatant lie, of course. And, as expected,_ he _blissfully ignored it, smiling at her and silently asking for an answer with his best puppy-dog eyes.

"I've been…well, I'm doing okay, I guess."

"Haven't seen you around in a while you know."

"Oh yes, well…I've been…er…busy with the…um…preparations."

He looked inquisitively at her, expecting more than that as an explanation. She ducked her head and frowned. She _so _did _not _want to do this. She gulped audibly.

"Well, you see Houjou-kun, I'm moving to Tokyo…to study at Nikkei University, I want to try and get leading violin in their orchestra. I'm going…tomorrow."

She held her breath and waited anxiously for his reaction. A sigh. No yelling, no cursing, no guilt trips. Just a saddened sigh. And _that_ hurt her worse than anything else could have.

"Hmm…Is that so Higurashi? Well, I'm happy for you. You can make it for sure."

The frightening thing was that he really did look happy for her. Except his eyes. His eyes were lacking that twinkle she had come to expect every time she looked at him. She let out a shaky breath. This was the first boy she'd kissed, the first boy she'd ever gone out with, her childhood companion. Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes but she refused to let him see her cry. Not this time. He'd seen her cry too many times in their lifetime.

"Houjou-kun…I'm so sorry. I don't know why I didn't tell you before. I guess I was kind of scared…of what you'd think of me, afterwards."

She glanced briefly at him, and then wished she hadn't. There was something in his eyes now. Except it wasn't anything she could handle from him, or from any other man for that matter. Disappointment. She strived after never disappointing a man because…that was just the way she was. She saw flashes of blue eyes so much like her own looking at her with that same emotion. He smiled softly.

"I thought you knew me better than this, Higurashi. I always knew…that I could never keep you here, should you choose to leave. You're a free spirit…I came to terms with that a long, long, time ago."

She bit her lip in a desperate attempt to keep the tears at bay. He touched her shoulder lightly and caressed her neck tenderly. He looked away for a while, appearing to think something over. Suddenly, he pulled her forward and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. He let go of her jerkily, almost mechanically and turned around.

"Good luck, Kagome."

And he was gone. From her side and, she thought most forebodingly, from her life. Oh but she was such a drama queen sometimes. She sniffed loudly and felt moisture rolling down her cheeks slowly, silently. She furiously wiped at her eyes until the skin around them was abused and raw. She wanted to make sure to remove all traces of her momentary weakness.

She squared her shoulders and smiled a little in anticipation. She stretched and jumped a little, warming up. Then with a rush of excitement, she took off at breakneck speed up the steep shrine steps.

She let out a jovial laugh. This were some of the only times she was truly happy. When she played the violin and when she ran. Especially at night. She loved running at night.

She was the only person she knew of who could run up these steps at breakneck speed and well…not break their neck. Houjou had tried it once and…oh no, she would not go down that road. She would not think about Houjou because that would inevitably lead to reminiscing and that would lead to crying and then to a deep pathetic depression. Nope, no Houjou for her.

As she reached the last step she heard her sister's voice.

"Higurashi Kagome, do you know what time it is young lady?"

She sounded suspiciously like their mother and had called her young lady which was a vast overstatement since they were only one year apart. That was Kikyou for you though. Always so mature and proper.

She was standing at the door, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed angrily and a motherly scowl on her face. One of her eyebrows twitched in annoyance.

"Kagome…please tell me you did not forget the wine."

Oh, so that's what she had forgotten. The wine…hmm, how typical of her.

"Hehe…um…I think I might have…"

Kikyou's eyes seem to blaze with the fire of her anger. Higurashi Kagome was a slightly bi-polar, extremely clumsy and passionate violin player and secret track star. Higurashi Kagome was also, as of this moment in time, very much dead.


	2. Chapter 2

Err…so I realized that I didn't write the disclaimer in the first chapter…so here it is.

DISCLAIMER: The characters and some of the settings in this story belong to the creator of InuYasha : Takahashi Rumiko-san. I do not own them…nor will ever, except if by some weird turn of fate I found myself in Takahashi-san's body…which is not likely.

The rain pattered on the windows, overriding the uncomfortable silence in the car, broken only by the slightly rheumatic sound of grandpa's snores. Even Souta was silent for the occasion, his eyes darting everywhere but not a sound passing between his tightly pursed lips.

Kagome tried to wriggle into a more comfortable position between her two siblings and received an angry stare from Kikyou and a small shove from the twerp. She reached out to the front to try and turn the radio on but paused at the withering look she was given by her mother. Okay, then, no radio.

She placed her hands on her lap and did one of the things she knew how to do best. Fidget. She smoothed imaginary wrinkles from her jeans, removed invisible flint from her top. She scuffed her shoes lightly against each other, ran her hands through her hair. She bit her lower lip and squirmed a little, bumping against Kikyou with special malice and purpose. She…

"Oh, for heaven's sake, mother, just turn the radio on."

Kagome raised a hand to her mouth, apparently to stifle a yawn, but the real purpose of the action was really to cover the self-satisfied smirk that played shamelessly on her lips. Kikyou was always the first to crack. Some people were just too easy to manipulate.

Her mother reluctantly turned the radio on, her hand lingering on the dials and buttons languidly, almost lovingly, her half-lidded eyes distracted. She was using that particularly calm technique that Higurashi women had perfected over the years and made their own, which served a sole purpose. Silently broadcasting their discomfort at doing something. Kagome visibly relaxed, her earlier anxiety vanishing from her mind, her overall mood mollified as the first notes were heard.

She had tried, over the years, to discover if someone else in her family shared this affinity with music, this craving she possessed for it. No one else had come to light…well, except her father, but there were some things that weren't spoken of in the Higurashi household and consequently, Kagome felt strange even thinking about these things.

She needed to rest. She let her head drop unto her brother's shoulder and when he did nothing to push her away; she stretched her legs, draping one over Kikyou's legs. Her big sister did nothing to push her away either. She mentally went over what she had packed to pass the time while Souta surreptitiously smoothed her hair down. Kikyou sighed and leaned some more of her weight on Kagome, trying to get comfortable in the small space that was available for them.

Kagome smiled softly. They never did this anymore, she thought. They never just sat in silence and enjoyed each other's company anymore. They had been close once, but now they barely had time for themselves, and even less for each other. The smile wavered and disappeared. They still had to deal though.

She sighed dejectedly. She was a complete pessimist. She pushed all thoughts from her mind, seeking to end her sudden unrest. She fell asleep to the sounds of Tchaikovsky, lulled into a dream world by the soft notes. A world where many a sandy-haired boy roamed, where she spent her nights playing her violin on the lip on an old well, where her summer days were enjoyed by lounging around in the branches of Goshinboku. A world where she was content and at peace with herself.

Kagome scratched her chin, wondering if her sister was crazy. It was the only plausible explanation. Why else would the apartment be so…clean? She had known Kikyou was a neat freak, she just hadn't known to what extent. Everything was so…sterilized. She came to the conclusion that this wasn't an apartment. It couldn't be, no, this was an Operation Room and soon enough some green clad interns would run into the room with a patient in tow to operate.

Except it would be a bit unorthodox to have a couch, a kitchen and a TV in an Operation Room. Unorthodox, yes, but not necessarily bad. Even doctors needed to wind now. She was suddenly sure that her sister would have made a wonderful doctor, had she not been hell-bent on becoming a top-notch lawyer.

Slowly, Kagome untied her trusty black Chuck Taylor's and carefully placed them on the shoe mat by the door, making sure not to let any of the dirt on them fall onto the white floor. This was the way one did things in Kikyou's territory. Methodically and effectively.

Kagome could hear her family in the kitchen, Kikyou's quiet laugh, the sound of a tea kettle, her brother's whiny voice. She padded quietly along the carpet, directly going to where she knew her new room would be. She turned the doorknob slowly, narrowing her eyes so as not to be blinded by the cleanliness of it.

Well…at least it wasn't all white. She unceremoniously dumped her bags on the floor and set out to explore the room. Her hand trailed along the wall, feeling its texture. Her hands encountered very few bumps and, offhandedly, she thought that either her sister had not been the one to paint this apartment or Kikyou's painting skills had gotten considerably better over the last year.

She grasped the clean, crisp sheets on the bed and grimaced. Ugh… they felt like hospital sheets. Personal touches were definitely needed. She took off her black hoodie, gathered her hair into a loose bun and set to work.

An hour passed quickly as she tweaked an arranged the room, here and there, to her liking. Her clothes were in the closet, messily, but in the closet nonetheless. She would have to bear the sheets for now. Her hands came to rest upon her violin case and she delicately traced the inscription on its surface. _To my dear daughter, may music be your haven in the darkest of times. – Y.H._

She swallowed the lump that had unknowingly risen in her throat and carefully placed the priceless article on the nightstand. A knock on the door stopped the torrent of depressing thoughts that were about to rush into her mind.

"Kagome, they're going. They want to say goodbye."

"Okay, I'll be right there Kikyou."

Kagome pulled at her "Goodbye Kitty" shirt in a last ditch effort to make herself look at least if not presentable, then just barely passable. She blew her bangs out of her eyes, before stepping out of the room and softly closing the door behind her.

Her family stood at the door, ready to leave, but still waiting for her. She saw remnants of a family tea time on the kitchen table and felt a pang of regret at not having been able to sit and talk with them. A bitter-sweet melancholy came over her. She loved them, she really, really die but she just wasn't as close to them as before.

She looked at her mother's warm brown eyes, her tired face and her welcoming smile. She tried to memorize the lines of silent knowledge around her grandfather's eyes, the color of his wizened skin. Kagome smiled softly as she saw her brother's slightly tousled hair. How she wished things weren't this way. She would miss them.

They stood there, awaiting a word, a phrase, a speech, a goodbye form her. And Kagome couldn't bring herself to say anything, because she knew that no matter what she said, it would never be enough to fill the gap between them.


End file.
